


No.2 I Can't Take This Anymore

by LiGi



Series: Febuwhump 2021 [2]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: "i can't take this anymore", FebuWhump2021, Gen, Hurt Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Light Angst, Merlin's Magic Revealed (Merlin), magical healing, no2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 12:35:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29153661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiGi/pseuds/LiGi
Summary: Febuwhump 2021 day 2 - "I can't take this anymore."Merlin just can't stand seeing Arthur injured when he could so easily do something to help.
Relationships: Merlin & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Series: Febuwhump 2021 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2137632
Comments: 10
Kudos: 105





	No.2 I Can't Take This Anymore

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Onehelluvapilot for betaing. (Psst... Everyone, go and find her Febuwhump stories too, they are really good!)

Arthur winced and bit back a scream as he pulled himself up onto his horse. Pain flared though his chest and he gasped to draw a breath in. He had to collapse forwards across the horse’s neck as his vision tunnelled and greyed out at the edges. He whimpered, gasping and clutching at his ribs.

“You really shouldn’t be riding,” Merlin scolded immediately, hurrying over to stand beside Arthur’s horse, his hands hovering around Arthur’s torso.

“I’m… fine… Merlin,” he said through teeth gritted against the pain.

“You’re _really_ not.” Merlin put his hands on his hips, frowning worriedly up at Arthur. “You have four broken ribs. And God knows what other injuries! Let me look at you properly, please!”

“Don’t have time, gotta get back to Camelot.”

“Arthur!”

“We need to warn my father about that _thing_.”

That thing being the huge winged creature that had attacked them, throwing Arthur into a rock wall before flying off in the direction of the caves near Camelot.

Before Merlin could protest further, Arthur nudged his horse into a trot, barely holding back a shout by ramming his fist in his mouth. He bit into the leather of his glove as the horse’s movement jolted through his body, each step she took ricocheting pain around his chest.

Merlin scrambled onto his own horse and kicked her to catch up.

“Arthur please! You’re going to make it worse.”

“’m fine, Merlin.”

He was so far from fine he felt like he was going to fall off his horse. But they needed to get back to Camelot.

After a couple of minutes, they settled into an uneasy trot, Arthur’s breathing laboured and his hands in a white-knuckled grip on the reins. Merlin yammered on with his inane prattle, but Arthur could tell his eyes were fixed anxiously on him, watching for any sign of pain.

Keeping his shoulders slightly hunched and bent forward and his breaths as shallow as possible helped lessen the pain, but it was still a constant screaming agony in his chest. Every jolt of the horse’s movement sent fresh waves of pain and Arthur couldn’t conceal the grunts and whimpers that kept slipping from him. Merlin was growing increasingly irritated, suggesting they stop every few minutes.

When Arthur’s horse made a little jump to get over a broken branch across the path and Arthur screamed, slipping in his saddle as an explosion of pain erupted in his side, Merlin lost his temper.

“We are stopping. Now!”

Arthur’s vision greyed again as he struggled for breath and he slid sideways off his horse, one hand uselessly snatching for the pommel of the saddle.

Merlin managed to grab him before he fell completely off, sinking down with him to lower him gently to the floor. Arthur groaned, his hands reflexively clutching at his ribs. He flinched and yelped as his hand touched his side, snatching it away again.

Merlin knelt, unfastening Arthur’s belt and shoving his chainmail upwards to see his chest. He swore loudly and began ripping a strip off his tunic.

“One of your ribs has broken through the skin. _Damn it,_ _Arthur_! You stubborn, stupid prat!”

“Hey!” Arthur complained.

He tried to take a deeper breath, only to choke to a stop when it was agony, resuming his previous shallow panted breaths. Pain-filled nausea rose in his stomach and he cried out as the spasm jerked his whole torso. Tears streaming down his face, he made a grab at Merlin, whimpering.

“I can’t take this anymore!” Merlin cried, digging his hands into his own hair and yanking it, a look of anguish on his face.

“ _You_ can’t take it?” Arthur panted.

“Arthur… I can –” Merlin stopped, clamping his mouth shut. His eyes darted, from Arthur’s face, to his chest, to the sky. He groaned and stood up suddenly, kicking a tree root. “Damn it,” he shouted. “Damn it, damn it, _damn_ _it_! This isn’t how this was supposed to happen.”

He pressed the backs of his hands into his eyes, which had begun streaming tears.

“Merlin?” Arthur wanted to push himself a little more upright, but stopped himself just in time. He held a hand out to Merlin instead. “What’s the matter?”

Merlin dropped to the floor again and his fingers began fluttering around, dabbing carefully on Arthur’s side with the wad of bandage ripped from his tunic. Arthur wasn’t sure what he was doing but it was causing pain to ignite all across his chest again.

“I can’t take seeing you in pain when I could easily do something,” Merlin said quietly, not looking at Arthur.

“You _are_ doin’ something,” Arthur stammered, biting back a yelp as another wave of pain seared through him.

“No, this is stupid,” Merlin spat and threw the wad of cloth, now startlingly red, to the ground, rubbing one bloody hand over his face in frustration. “I can’t help you like this. I have to –” He stopped talking. Arthur gave his knee a weak punch to make him continue. “I have to tell you something.”

Arthur nodded, slightly apprehensive. “Alright?”

“I can…” He took a deep breath. “I can heal it.”

“Yes, Merlin. That’s what physicians do,” Arthur sighed. His head was starting to feel heavy, the pain pushing in and clouding his mind. Every breath was agony.

“No. I can…” Merlin brushed away another torrent of tears and screwed his face up.

He looked a sight, blood smeared across his cheeks where he’d touched his face. Tears dribbled through the smears, washing the blood into rivulets down to his jaw.

“I can heal it with magic. I – I have magic, Arthur.”

Arthur blinked.

His head was filled with a rushing sound, loud and roaring. Merlin faded in and out of focus, his lips moving but Arthur couldn’t hear what he was saying. He saw them form the shape of his name.

“Arthur?”

“No,” he whispered, his eyes boring into Merlin’s. “You don’t. You _can’t_ have…”

His mind was reeling, shock and blood loss and pain taking over until he slipped into blackness.

* * *

Arthur came around to a warm feeling spreading throughout his torso. Not the burning pain that had been engulfing him, but more like the feeling of getting into a warm bath, letting the heat of the water wash across his skin. He gasped in a huge shuddering breath.

Merlin’s hands were cradled over the wound. His eyes were bright gold.

As sense and feeling returned to Arthur’s head he pushed Merlin’s hands away.

“You fainted,” Merlin whispered. He looked panicked now, his lower lip quivering ever so slightly.

Arthur blinked blearily, trying to push himself up to be a little more level with Merlin. The first thing he noticed was how the pain was gone. His hand flew to his chest, fingers probing around where mere minutes before had been white hot agony.

“You…” He looked up and met Merlin’s eyes. They were blue now, all traces of the gold gone, submerged beneath the surface again. “You…” He couldn’t think what to say, just stared at Merlin, his eyebrows pulling down into a frown.

Merlin stared back wide eyed, his throat convulsing as he gulped.

Arthur’s hand was still roaming over his ribs, pressing down as hard as he dared on the ones that had been broken. There wasn’t even a trace of pain. As if they had never been broken in the first place. Only a smear of drying blood on his fingers was any indicator that he had even been injured at all.

“I, umm… I healed it while you were unconscious,” Merlin said guiltily, wringing his hands together.

Arthur jabbed his finger into his ribs a final time, then sighed, relishing in the fact he could do so without it hurting. He bit his lip, frowned and looked at Merlin’s scared face.

“Thank you,” he said simply.

“Thank…? Oh.” Merlin’s eyes flooded with tears, surprise and relief clear in his expression. “You’re not… angry?”

Arthur sighed again. Was he angry? He stalled answering by pulling his shirt and gambeson down, rearranging his chainmail over the top and smoothing it flat. Then he sat up, scooting back to rest against a tree. He rubbed his fist against his mouth.

“I don’t know,” he answered finally.

“Alright,” Merlin said slowly.

They sat staring at each other awkwardly for several minutes. When Arthur could bear it no longer he got up, brushed himself off and walked over to the horses.

“Arthur? What do you…?” Merlin called.

“Not now, Merlin.” He needed time to think. “We need to get back to Camelot.”

Merlin stood up, his hands balled into fists that Arthur could tell were shaking even from this distance.

“Do you want me to come with you? Or should I…” He gestured in the opposite direction.

“Of course you have to come. You’re my manservant,” Arthur snapped.

Merlin gasped. “Am I still?” he asked, his voice tinged with hope.

Arthur met his eyes and nodded, unable to put his thoughts in to words, not even sure what his thoughts actually were. This was going to take a long time to figure out. He pulled himself up onto his horse and gestured for Merlin to follow him as he kicked his horse into a fast trot, heading back to Camelot.

**Author's Note:**

> I love any and all comments!


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